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July 12, 2013

planning ahead

I know. It's barely July and I'm already thinking about August. I must be some crazy, obsessive, organized teacher if I'm planning this early.

I am crazy and pretty organized, but I don't think I'm too obsessed. I just strongly believe that when I feel inspired to do something, I should do it before I lose the urge. Knowing me, I'm not going to get the urge again and I'll end up never doing it.

So last week I was moved to pull out the lesson planning materials I brought home (you know, the ones that I bring home every summer and then they sit in a corner and I never do anything with them?) and sort of planned out the bare minimum of what I needed to have for books to make it through the school year. This required me to create some adapted books that suited my needs (in my case, I take clip art or photos I download via the district's clip art account and create a simple, repetitive book that goes with the "theme" of a unit and then create little pieces using the same picture/clip art so my students can come up and match it... my Adobe PSE skills at work). While I was at it, I picked a trade book that went with each theme as well.

I picked a lot of Pete the Cat books. It's going to be a very Pete the Cat year in Miss Kim's classroom. The newest book was a preorder and arrived in late June.

And this is why I love Pete the Cat:

I cannot wait to read that part to my class. I read it to Kiah, but she wasn't feeling it. Blah. Teenagers.

While I was in the mood, I started looking for a lesson plan book. It's been a very long time since I've owned a traditional lesson plan book. I've just been creating my own little template and printing it for awhile. However, having a traditional book appealed to me. Last year I bought an Erin Condren Life Planner and loved it. It went everywhere with me, but I used it most often at work. It would be kind of nice to have a traditional lesson plan book that I could just leave at work and keep track of meetings and deadlines as well as lessons.

You know what would make it even better? If it had a bunch of pages for notes so that I could take it with me when I go to meetings and inservices so I could make notes and have everything all there in one book.

I found it, and at a great price. Plum Paper Designs at Etsy not only makes really great custom planners but they also have tons of options to customize your planner. I added 30 extra notebook pages to my version so I've got that extra paper to take notes. Or doodle. Or whatever.

So here's how mine looks:

There's a mostly clear cover on the book to keep it clean and a little more sturdy. Here's the "true" cover:

And a peek at the inside:

Those are lesson plan pages. I haven't yet thought about how it's going to work for me. But I will.

These are the extra notebook pages.

So there's what I've got going for next year... along with SMARTboard lessons and postcards and newsletter formats. Seriously... I've gone a little crazy. I'm OK with that. I think the more I get done now, the less I have to add to my stress level in August and September. Since I always have a little breakdown a few weeks into school, maybe this will prevent that.

Comments

planning ahead

I know. It's barely July and I'm already thinking about August. I must be some crazy, obsessive, organized teacher if I'm planning this early.

I am crazy and pretty organized, but I don't think I'm too obsessed. I just strongly believe that when I feel inspired to do something, I should do it before I lose the urge. Knowing me, I'm not going to get the urge again and I'll end up never doing it.

So last week I was moved to pull out the lesson planning materials I brought home (you know, the ones that I bring home every summer and then they sit in a corner and I never do anything with them?) and sort of planned out the bare minimum of what I needed to have for books to make it through the school year. This required me to create some adapted books that suited my needs (in my case, I take clip art or photos I download via the district's clip art account and create a simple, repetitive book that goes with the "theme" of a unit and then create little pieces using the same picture/clip art so my students can come up and match it... my Adobe PSE skills at work). While I was at it, I picked a trade book that went with each theme as well.

I picked a lot of Pete the Cat books. It's going to be a very Pete the Cat year in Miss Kim's classroom. The newest book was a preorder and arrived in late June.

And this is why I love Pete the Cat:

I cannot wait to read that part to my class. I read it to Kiah, but she wasn't feeling it. Blah. Teenagers.

While I was in the mood, I started looking for a lesson plan book. It's been a very long time since I've owned a traditional lesson plan book. I've just been creating my own little template and printing it for awhile. However, having a traditional book appealed to me. Last year I bought an Erin Condren Life Planner and loved it. It went everywhere with me, but I used it most often at work. It would be kind of nice to have a traditional lesson plan book that I could just leave at work and keep track of meetings and deadlines as well as lessons.

You know what would make it even better? If it had a bunch of pages for notes so that I could take it with me when I go to meetings and inservices so I could make notes and have everything all there in one book.

I found it, and at a great price. Plum Paper Designs at Etsy not only makes really great custom planners but they also have tons of options to customize your planner. I added 30 extra notebook pages to my version so I've got that extra paper to take notes. Or doodle. Or whatever.

So here's how mine looks:

There's a mostly clear cover on the book to keep it clean and a little more sturdy. Here's the "true" cover:

And a peek at the inside:

Those are lesson plan pages. I haven't yet thought about how it's going to work for me. But I will.

These are the extra notebook pages.

So there's what I've got going for next year... along with SMARTboard lessons and postcards and newsletter formats. Seriously... I've gone a little crazy. I'm OK with that. I think the more I get done now, the less I have to add to my stress level in August and September. Since I always have a little breakdown a few weeks into school, maybe this will prevent that.